A Republican lawmaker Wednesday got in a fiery exchange with a CNN anchor over what Republicans are learning following the Democratic elections sweep and made a surprising implication about negotiations to try and reopen the government.
CNN anchor Kasie Hunt interviewed Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) and asked what Republicans might be thinking about following the elections.
"Well I say, first of all, I don't know if we really lost. I mean that sincerely..." Mullin responded.
Hunt then interjected, saying "it's a little implausible on its face."
Mullin described why he thinks Republicans saw election losses, saying Republican candidates need to be better quality.
"Virginia was a blue state.Kamala won it by five points. Wedidn't win New Jersey. Wedidn't win New York. And wesure the heck didn't win California. So it wasn't a statethat the president lost," he said. "It wasjust like the issue was if youstart looking like Jay Jones, theattorney general in Virginia,you know, how did the Republicans lose that race? Imean, here you have Jay Jones,who wanted to, you know, killone of his colleagues and hopedhis kids died. And you go, howdid a candidate like that beat a Republican? That's a questionthat you got to ask."
Hunt pushed back, asking more about the candidate and if they were a weak fit for the race.
"I don't know the candidatepersonally, but that goes thatsays, well, maybe we should do abetter job in recruiting," Mullin said.
As President Donald Trump admitted Wednesday morning, Republicans lost. And voters voiced what they really think of the shutdown.
"I thinkthe shutdown is bad foreverybody," Mullin said. "That's why it's sofrustrating that the Democratswant to continue to use it asleverage."
Hunt pushed back.
"You seem to imply that Republicans needto end the shutdown to make itbetter," she said.
"Well, we're trying to Idon't know where we negotiate,though, because we've offered aclean CR that [Sen.] Chuck Schumer (D-NY)wrote a year ago. This isn'tany legislation thathas Republican policies on it. Idon't know how you negotiatewhen it's already clean. Well,maybe what we should have done,and this is what we talked aboutis, well, maybe we instead ofoffering a clean CR because wethought that the Democrats wouldplay ball with it, maybe weshould have put a whole bunch of Republican policies on it. Theyput a whole bunch of Democratpolicies on their CR and thenwe negotiate back to the cleanCR," he said. "Maybe that's what we shouldhave done. Maybe there was anegotiating tactic that we thatwe didn't do, but there's noplace to negotiate. When youhave a clean CR because whatpolicy do you take off of aclean CR?"